Faculty Spotlight

Serving as a department head is hard work. Some faculty members would rather spend their time focused on their classes and research than performing administrative duties, which can be both frustrating and thankless at times. But Dr. Rebecca Brienen enjoyed the opportunities she had over the past 6½ years to make a difference while leading the Department of Art, Graphic Design and Art History.

That made it logical for her to jump at the opportunity to become the College of Arts and Sciences’ associate dean of personnel and faculty development. She began that role full-time on Feb. 1.

Watson, president of the Botanical Society of America, became interested in researching the diversity of the sunflower family when she was in graduate school. And throughout her career she has continued to study what is the largest family of flowering plants, and one that contains important crops, medicinal plants, garden ornamentals and weeds.

For Dr. Sabiha Parveen, it wasn’t so much a question of what she’d study, but rather how she’d go about it.

“I have always been fascinated by the human brain and how we function as humans,” she said. “I had read about audiology and speech-language pathology in an educational magazine when I was in high school and was really inspired by the scope of the field.”

Coming from a rural town in West Virginia and a family of miners and railroaders, William “Bus” Jaco never thought he would make it to college, much less have a doctorate degree, a theorem named in his honor and be inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society Hall of Fame.

Glen Krutz wasn’t looking for a job when he heard about OSU’s search for a new dean for the College of Arts and Sciences, but this was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

“It is rare for large college dean positions to come open at major universities,” said Krutz, then the University of Oklahoma’s senior vice provost. “I talked to some people whose opinions I respect, and they thought it would be a good fit. When I came to Stillwater, I really liked the vibe. I liked the hard questions the hiring committee asked and what they said about OSU. It was a delightful exchange during an interview that would normally be stressful, not fun.”

Eve Ringsmuth spent her early years in a single-parent home, where her mom was determined to provide her with the same opportunities others enjoyed.

“I think she was from that generation where feminism was really coming into its own with more women entering the workforce,” Ringsmuth said. “For example, I remember participating in Take a Girl to Work Day with my mom and a few other people.”

During his freshman year of high school in the state of Washington, Joseph Haley took a class in physics. Despite many warnings from friends and mentors about its difficulty, he took the challenge.

“You have to have a really solid math background to get into physics, but that was a moment in my life when it just clicked,” Haley explained. “I took that physics class and just took to it like a duck to water. I’m extremely lucky in the sense that I knew that’s what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.”